


The Brave, The Few

by Swim2520



Category: Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background Relationships, Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M, Family, Friendship, Hostage Situations, Hurt/Comfort, Not really focusing on any romance, Suspense, Though there will be some towards the end
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28564800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swim2520/pseuds/Swim2520
Summary: A normal day in Chicago becomes bloody when Chicago Med is taken hostage by a team of highly trained mercenaries. No one knows what their motives are or how to free the hostages without bloodshed. The only advantage that they have is two members of CPD's legendary Intelligence unit are on the inside, ready to do whatever it takes to save lives. But the cops are severely outnumbered and out-gunned. Surviving this hostage situation is going to take every bit of training and ingenuity they have. And even then, they are going to need every bit of luck they can get.
Relationships: Adam Ruzek & Hailey Upton, Hank Voight & Jay Halstead & Hailey Upton & Adam Ruzek & Kim Burgess & Kevin Atwater, Jay Halstead & Hailey Upton, Jay Halstead & Kelly Severide, Jay Halstead & Will Halstead, Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton, Kim Burgess/Adam Ruzek, Matthew Casey & Jay Halstead, Matthew Casey & Kelly Severide
Comments: 20
Kudos: 96





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was randomly scrolling through Tumblr (as we do) and came across a post that was asking for a story where Med is attacked and how it affects everyone's relationships. Immediately, this idea came to me and I happily wrote it down. I literally sat at the edge of my seat in suspense while writing this chapter and trying to figure out what happens next (even though I'm the only writing it) with my shoulders hunched and adrenaline flooding my body. I have never been so excited to write something before that my heart is pumping as fast as it is now. I hope the same happens to you while reading. 
> 
> Story takes place in the current seasons, but without the presence of the pandemic.

"Hails, you ready to go?"

Adam stuck his head inside an employee-only bathroom to see Hailey cleaning herself up. One of the perks of being friends with the staff at Chicago Med meant that they got a few perks, like cleaning themselves up in a nice, private bathroom.

Intelligence had participated in a raid earlier in the day that went a little worse than expected. One of the gang members they were chasing opened fire and ended up hitting a teenager on his way home from school. Thankfully, it looked like the teenager was going to survive. Hailey and Adam drove the kid to the hospital themselves and stuck around to question the two gang members injured in the raid about some activity that Intelligence was investigating. Once that was over, their friends at Med directed them to the nice employees-only bathroom to clean the blood off their hands and faces. Their black uniforms and vests hid any blood that got onto their clothing, which Hailey was thankful for. The last thing anyone in a hospital wanted (or needed) to see was two cops covered in blood.

"Yeah. Almost," she replied, using a hair dryer that Maggie had somehow found. Hailey did not want to know the reasons why she had such a thing at work, but she knew better than to question such blessings.

Adam slipped inside the bathroom to grant Hailey more privacy as she was half undressed. Even though they were no longer together, Hailey was still a but more open with him than she was others in the unit and she knew he felt the same way. He grabbed her vest, which she had draped over the sinks as she undressed to try and wash off the blood. Her shirt was still wet and it was hard to tell if it was blood or water at this point.

"You okay?"

"I'm good. Did you talk to Voight?"

"Yeah. The rest of the team is back at the District. They are corroborating our guys' statements and will let us know if we need to check back in on them later."

"Sounds good. I still need a few more minutes to dry my shirt. I'll meet you in the car."

"I'll be in the parking lot. The car is still in the ambulance bay," Adam said, walking out with her vest in hand.

He said quick hellos to the doctors and nurses that he knew-either from hours spent drinking together at Molly's or countless visits to the hospital. Maggie pointed towards the ambulance bay in a silent gesture that told Adam to hurry up and move his car. He gave the head nurse a little grin before picking up the pace to the bay.

Adam went straight to the trunk to toss Hailey's vest inside, along with the long guns they used in the raid. Just as he was about to close the trunk, the sound of tires squealing nearby made him freeze. He immediately went into "cop mode". Moving into a crouch, Adam grabbed one of the long guns from the trunk and began to move forward. Every sense in his body was on high alert.

He blocked out the sounds of the hospital behind him and instead began to move behind the various ambulances that were parked in the bay. Adam moved slowly, trying not to give away his position. He had limited ammo in his long gun and was working without a partner to watch his back, which meant that he was constantly looking behind him for a sneak attack. Adam proceeded slowly to the entrance of the ambulance bay. The sound of voices immediately made him freeze behind the last ambo before he moved out in the open.

_"Alright, Team One will take the E.D. Team Two will sweep through the rest of the hospitaland gather up the rest of the employees. We move in..."_

Adam did not stick around to hear anymore. Instead, he quietly hightailed it back to his car where he grabbed the other long gun and Hailey's vest. Something told him that they would need both. He most likely only had a matter of seconds before the group behind him stormed the E.D. Already, he had a plan forming in his head.

His first priority would be to get his partner, get to a safe location, and come up with a plan. The doctors in the E.D. had no experience in hostage situations (except maybe Choi), but Maggie and their friends in the department knew that Adam and Hailey were inside the hospital and armed. They would try and keep everyone safe until the two cops were able to get everyone out safely. And the knowledge that Intelligence-whom they considered to be _family_ -would quickly get involved was also a comforting thought.

Maggie was by the doors when he reentered. He wasted no time with pleasantries and said, "Armed gunmen are seconds out. I'm getting Hailey. Keep everyone safe."

The head nurse knew better than to think Adam was joking. He was not the kind of person to joke about such a thing and she knew him well enough to see the worry in his face. She nodded and immediately moved to alert the other doctors and nurses while Adam sprinted to the bathroom.

Hailey was just buttoning her shirt when he arrived. "Adam, what's going on?"

"Put this on and take this," he said, handing her back her vest and holding out the long gun for her to take when she was ready.

"What the hell is going on?"

The unmistakeable sound of gunshots-followed by screaming-filled the air. Whatever doubts Hailey had on the situation were now gone.

"We got to get out of here. Get to one of the higher floors and contact Voight."

Hailey nodded, understanding what Adam was saying. They both turned off their radios and their phones to maintain a low profile. He inched open the door before they dashed towards the stairwell with their pistols in hand and long guns behind their backs (maintain speed and stealth). They both released a breath of relief as they reached the stairwell undetected. Despite not having any idea of where they were supposed to go, they began to move up the stairs. It was better to keep moving than remain sitting ducks.

"Explain," Hailey ordered.

"Not here. We need to get to an office. Preferably somewhere without cameras." Technically, Hailey had become the ranking officer on scene as soon as shots were fired. Still, Adam knew more about the situation than Hailey did, so he was in the lead for now. They needed to get somewhere safe to regroup.

"The cameras are all done. Scheduled maintenance," Hailey replied. "I heard Goodwin talking about it with one of the security guys."

"Alright. Dr. Charles' office?" Adam asked.

Due to the tumultuous past few months, Voight had every member of Intelligence visit the psychologist for regular therapy sessions. Besides the E.D. and ICU, Charles' office was the one place that Intelligence knew like their own district. It was a private office with a few windows and it was extremely likely that the man himself was not in there.

"Yeah. He's in the E.D. I saw him before we hit the stairwell."

"Let's go."

* * *

Hailey would have liked to think that no one caught she and Adam using the stairs, but she knew that it was luck. Hostage takers would have taken the hostages down the stairs to maintain control over them. It was pure luck that they decided to take the other set of stairs and not the ones that they were using.

They reached Dr. Charles' office without any incident. They first cleared the floor, which had already been emptied before their arrival. Whoever these guys were, they worked _very_ quickly. Professional quickly.

Neither took a sigh of relief when the door was closed. They were safe, for now. They knew next to nothing about the attackers except that they were organized. Hopefully, Hailey and Adam could remain secret for long enough to make contact with the team-without getting caught-and get valuable intel on these guys without getting killed. Their primary objective was the same as always: protect the people. And they couldn't do that if they were dead.

"What the hell, Adam?"

He quickly explained what happened when they were separated and what he knew about the attackers, which was slim to nothing. "We need to call Voight in," he ended his story with.

Hailey nodded her head and pulled out her phone. "Shit. I got no service. You?"

"Nothing," Adam said, holding up his own phone.

"They brought jammers."

"Radio?"

"No," Hailey shook her head and pursed her lips. "If they are pros, which I'm thinking they might be, then they might be monitoring police channels. Any chance that these guys can somehow monitor calls made from the landlines?"

"It's a hospital. They'd have no reason to."

"Let's just hope you're right."

Hailey quickly dialed the one number that she knew would pick up. She was right. Jay picked up almost immediately.

"Jay, its Hailey and Adam."

_"Hey, guys. What phone are you calling from because I don't recognize the number."_

"No time for pleasantries, Jay. Put us on speaker. Now."

There was a slight scuffle on the other hand of the line as Jay got everyone's attention and switched the line to speaker. _"Alright, Hailey, Adam, everyone is here. What's going on?"_

"Chicago Med has been overtaken by who we assume to be professionals approximately fifteen minutes ago. Adam managed to notice them before they attacked so he was able to grab our long guns and get to me before the shooting started. We managed to get to Dr. Charles' office where we're using the landline. These guys brought jammers and we're avoiding our radios in case they are monitoring police channels," Hailey briefed.

 _"Any casualties?_ The gravely voice of Voight came over the line, making bother officers straighten up subconsciously.

Adam and Hailey shared a dark look. The gunshots had not stopped as they climbed floors. It was more than likely that someone had been killed.

"Unknown, but extremely likely."

"I managed to warn Maggie before the shooting started. She and probably all the other doctors and nurses in the E.D. know that Hailey and I are armed and in the building."

_"Then, they'll do their best to keep everyone in that area calm and alive until then. What about the other hostages?"_

"Unknown. Cameras are down for scheduled maintenance. We're flying blind here, Sarge."

 _"Sit tight. We are on our way to the scene where we'll try to establish contact with the attackers,"_ Voight said, hanging up.

Once again, Adam and Hailey exchanged a look. They knew what they had to, damn the consequences for disobeying orders. When the phone was off, Hailey was in charge and Adam would follow her anywhere. "We're not sitting tight, are we?"

"Hell no. These guys took hostages inside a hospital for a reason and they aren't going to find it out there. We're going to find it in here."

"So, what are we going to do?"

The first step of their plan was to get information about the attackers. Adam had not seen anything in the ambulance bay; he had only heard the sound of their voices. And there was only one voice-that probably belonged to the header-that he could identify with confidence. They had no idea why they were targeting a hospital and they had no idea if they had someone working with them on the inside. They had no idea where the hostages were being kept. But there was a strong likelihood that it was on several floors. Hospitals had a big staff and lots of civilian visitors, not even mentioning the patients. If they made an attempt at rescuing one group of hostages, the other(s) could be killed as a result.

This had to be a stealth mission. First, they would gather information about the attacks, which would hopefully lead them to the reason why they targeted a hospital. They were hoping that reconnaissance was an option, but both cops knew that it was unlikely. It was too risky. Taking out a member of the group had its own challenges.

The only advantage they had at the moment was that hospitals were a lot of territory to cover and the attacks had no idea that Hailey and Adam were there. It was an advantage that they would use until they no longer could.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Intelligence arrives on the scene of the hostage situation. Adam and Hailey take one step forward in their plan and meet up with some familiar faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 2! I have to say that I have loved writing this story so far as it is unlike anything that I've ever written before. A lot of the action is going to happen next chapter.
> 
> Now, I'm no expert on medical terminology, much less the technology that they use on the job, so I have really generic descriptions about some of the technology they use. Also, the timeline of certain parts of the chapter are out of order, just like the first part of this chapter. It is just to show the different reactions of the various characters to the circumstances.

As soon as Adam warned Maggie of the incoming attack, she glanced around the E.D., looking for someone in charge. She noticed Sharon speaking with Dr. Halstead and Choi on the other side of the room. Moving quickly, Maggie did not bother hiding any of the urgency and fear that she was feeling.

"Sharon, we have a problem."

"What?"

"Armed gunmen are about to storm the E.D. Ruzek and Upton are here."

Sharon Goodwin was a shrewd woman whose first priority was always to protect her people and patients. Their friends in Intelligence would take care of the bad guys. Until then, their main priority would be to keep everyone alive. "Take the hospital out of service. We aren't going to give them any more hostages."

Maggie pressed a few buttons on her handheld. It was a precautionary in case of situations exactly like this. It was too late to lockdown the hospital. If Adam's hurried explanation was any indication, they did not have the time. As soon as Maggie finished taking the hospital out of rotation, shots rang out through the room and screaming quickly followed. A group of armed men stormed the room, quickly shooting both the security guards on duty and the cops that were keeping an eye on the patients Intelligence brought in. Some of the men split off from the main group, taking the elevator.

"Who's in charge here?" One of the gunmen shouted.

"I am," Sharon stepped forward. Maggie almost stepped forward with her, determined to protect her friend and boss, but a gentle hand on her arm stopped her. She shared a glance with Dr. Halstead who was doing a fairly good job of maintaining his composure. He shook his head, reminding her that they had to keep everyone alive until Adam and Hailey acted.

"Well, now I'm in charge. Listen up, everyone. This is real simple. We don't want to kill anyone else, so if you follow our instructions, everyone will get out of here alive. No one makes any sudden movements. Don't try to be a hero, people. It won't end well," the gunmen, who Maggie was sure was the leader, replied. He lifted his gun as he spoke to make sure that his point got across.

"My wife is sick. What about her?" The husband of a patient asked, exiting her room.

The leader did not hesitate to raise his gun and slam it to the man's face. The man fell to the ground, clutching his face and groaning. Based off how hard he was hit, Maggie wouldn't be surprised if he had a fractured cheekbone. She had to resist the urge to go and help him. Maggie knew that the action would not be well perceived by the gunmen.

"Any more questions?! No? Good. If you are so concerned with your family, then you'll shut up and do what we say. The faster we get what we want, the faster we'll get out of here. Now, everyone line up-single file-and walk to the cafeteria."

Any individual that could walk or be pushed in a wheelchair was escorted to the cafeteria where members of the group patrolled. Any patient in critical condition was left alone. The gunmen clearly did not care about their care. Every once in awhile, more people were escorted into the room as the second group cleared out the higher floors. Maggie could only hope that Adam and Hailey managed to hunker down somewhere and contact the other members of Intelligence. Something told Maggie that, regardless of what the gunmen said, there was a slim chance that they would let everyone go alive. This was going to get a lot worse.

* * *

Jay could honestly count on one hand the amount of times that he had been this scared. The only other times had been when he was in Afghanistan and any time that his brother or his partner were in danger. But there was no denying that this moment would blow all those out of the water.

The situation at Chicago Med had quickly deteriorated, according to the reports coming in from SWAT. Hospitals had a lot of personnel, patients, and visitors at any point during the day, which meant a lot of hostages. Officers believed that there were multiple groups of hostages, but no one knew where. Cameras were down for maintenance, so they were blind. And no one, not even Hailey and Adam, knew how many gunmen there were. It made things more than a little difficult.

They also knew that, as soon as they hung up the phone, Adam and Hailey left the office they were holed up in-probably to do something incredibly brave and stupid. Jay knew. Hell, he would do the same damn thing. So much was just unknown about the current situation and it would be maddening to sit there and do nothing. Jay liked to think that he knew what his partner was going to do. After so long of working together, he and Hailey could communicate without words because they knew each other so well. He hoped that this could be one of those times.

If it was Jay, he would first gather his bearings. Figure out what he knew and didn't know. From there, he would search for anyone that managed to hide from the attackers. Preferably someone on the staff. They might know exactly why the hospital was being attacked in such a public manner. If there was no one, then Jay would hunt down a lone member of the attackers, subdue them alive, and then interrogate them to get a better read on the situation. No matter what SWAT or the rest of Intelligence did on the outside, Hailey and Adam would play a crucial role in ending this situation with as many people alive as possible.

He could feel Voight glancing at him every once and awhile. Jay knew that he was worried. Voight did not always show it, but he cared deeply for the officers in his command. And it was no secret that Jay and Hailey balanced each other out. When one was in danger, the other had a tendency to freak out. They were willing to do anything to protect the other.

"I need you focused, Jay," Voight said.

"I'm focused."

"When it comes to Hailey, you and I both know that is not always true." Jay snapped his head up to look at his sergeant, worried what he was insinuating about their relationship. Yes, they were close, and he might have hoped that they were something more one day, but for now, they were just friends. Partners.

"I'm not sure what you are-"

"Jay, I'm not insinuating anything. I know that you and Hailey are close. I don't know if there is something going on between you two, and I don't care right now. I just need to know that your head is on straight." It was no secret in Intelligence that Hailey was the only person that Jay tended to listen to when she called him out on losing focus during a case. Without her by his side, there was no one to keep his head on straight.

Jay sighed. "I'm good, Sarge."

"I'll hold you to that," he said as they pulled up to the hospital, close by to the mobile command station that was already parked outside the hospital. The SWAT team on scene exchanged looks as Intelligence rolled up. After all, no one had called them in to help. Jay and Voight walked straight to the command truck and climbed inside.

"Sergeant Voight. What are you doing here?" The officer asked, immediately looking territorial. "No one called Intelligence to come in."

"I got two officers on the inside. They called us in," Voight replied.

"What? Who?"

"Detective Upton and Officer Ruzek. They were at the hospital interviewing some suspects in a case that we were working. Ruzek managed to hear the gunmen before they attacked. He was able to give the E.D. a warning before getting to his partner and getting to a secure location where they made contact with us."

The officer raised an eyebrow, clearly a little impressed by Intelligence's ability to get involved in any major event in the city, most of the time by pure accident. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. They brought jammers. Upton and Ruzek have their radios, but they are keeping them off in case the offenders are listening into police channels."

"Do they have proof of that?"

"They're being extra cautious. If they get proof of otherwise, then we'll open up more effective lines of communication."

"Alright. Well, things are made a little easier now that we have eyes inside. Since these are your cops, I'll hand over command to you, Voight."

"Actually, we're just going to focus on what our guys will be doing. They have a plan and we're going to try and figure it out. As intel comes in, we'll loop you in," Voight replied.

Jay waited until he got a nod from Voight with permission before he exited the command truck and to the tents where Intelligence was setting up their own command center. Somehow, they had already gotten whiteboards onto the scene where Kim and Kevin were. Blueprints of the hospital were already laid out on the table.

"So...?" Kim asked.

"Voight is working out the kinks with the officer in charge, but we're primarily focusing on whatever plan Adam and Hailey are cooking up. Right now, we know as much as they do, so we might be able to figure out whatever plan they have in there."

"Okay. Well, we also know that Hailey is the ranking officer in there. You know her best. What's her plan?"

* * *

The good thing about hospitals was that they had loads of equipment that could be used for a variety of different purposes. After discussing what they should do, Hailey and Adam snuck down to the lower floors of the hospital and began looking for equipment that they could repurpose for their own purposes.

Eventually, they stumbled across some kind of camera that was supposed to go inside the body to guide doctors during specific operations. The camera itself was at the end of a long black tube that connected to a large computer screen. The sight of it triggered an idea for Hailey.

"I know that look. What are you thinking?" Adam said, making sure to keep his voice low.

"This thing is a camera. If we can figure out where the hostages are being held, then we might be able to drill a hole somewhere and poke this little thing in the hole to get eyes in there. I doubt it has audio, but its better than nothing."

"It would certainly help us figure out how many guys we're dealing with."

"It's a hospital," Hailey replied. "We can guess that they have a lot."

"Good point, but there's only one major flaw in your plan. We have no idea how thick the floors are in this building. If they are too thick, we're going to need to drill through a wall."

"If we can somehow find the blueprints of the building, then I can help us figure it out."

"You sure?" Adam asked. He had looked at blueprints of buildings before and had always found them to extremely difficult to understand.

"Positive. My roommate in college was studying to be an engineer and she was always studying blueprints and made me help her. Once, she got drunk, came back to our room, and designed an entire fucking building before falling asleep. When she woke up, she had no memory of any of it," Hailey grinned.

"The more I learn about you..." Adam trailed off, tossing Hailey a smirk. He had quickly learned while dating Hailey that she had a lot of hidden talents. She was a private person, which Adam respected, so she only shared them when she was in a situation that reminded her of it or needed to lighten the mood. "But I like your idea. I'm willing to beat that this place has a records room somewhere. The blueprints have got to be in there."

Hailey took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair. She placed her long gun on the table and sat on the floor, clearly trying to calm herself down. Sensing that she needed a break, Adam joined her on the floor.

"What's going through your head?"

"That we are _fucked._ Think about. This place is huge. We have no backup, no idea how many guys are in this building, how well-armed, where the hostages are, or why they even targeted the hospital. The one plan that we do have could take hours."

Immediately, the gravity of their situation hit Adam, too. It was one thing to think about, but it was quite another thing to say it out loud. And he completely agreed with her.

There was no telling how long this would last. Adrenaline had done its work so far and kept the two cops fighting and determined. But it would not last for much longer. They were both running on maybe an hour or so of sleep in the last two days and neither had eaten anything since breakfast, which had been sparse at best. If this situation lasted for as long as both Hailey and Adam felt it would, then they were going to have to work efficiently and make the most of whatever energy they had left. Checking his watch, Adam saw that it was now approaching five in the evening. The building had now been under siege for an hour, though it felt like much longer.

"I get it. I do. But there are people relying on us to solve this situation, so we got to get back to work."

"I know. I just needed a quick break. It's been a long day."

"No kidding. And it's about to get longer. So, let's take it step-by-step. Find the records room and then we'll go from there," Adam said, standing up. He left a hand outstretched to pull Hailey to her feet. Once she was standing up, Adam looked her in the eye. "We got this," he said.

* * *

One weekend a month, the various members of PD, Fire, and Med got together to help train each other to be better at their jobs. Intelligence taught them the basics of profiling suspects and basic combat techniques. They taught members of the PD basic first aid, even going so far as teaching them how to improvise various medical procedures if they did not have the proper materials. The people of Chicago Med taught them to identify any serious conditions that they could come across in the field and what to do for each one. The first responders in all three groups were more than just friends; they were family. By teaching each other these skills, they hoped to help keep each other safe in some shape or form.

Sylvie Brett, having been held at gunpoint several times, took those lessons to heart. She knew that she was no match for the clearly well-trained gunmen that had attacked Chicago Med, but she was smart.

When the gunshots rang out, she was proud to say that she did not freeze. She grabbed Foster's hand and shoved them both into a tiny maintenance closet where they could only hope that no one would find them. They turned off their radios after alerting Main to the current situation (to get them off rotation and warn them to take Med out of service) and made themselves as comfortable as possible in the stuffy closet.

"What the _fuck_?" Foster breathed out once the world outside quieted and came to a standstill. At least, that was what they were hoping.

"Shut up," Sylvie replied, knowing that talking could give away their location.

"No, we gotta get out of here."

"And go where?"

"Remember all those sessions where PD told us what to do during a hostage situation?" Sylvie asked.

"Vaguely."

"The first thing they told us to do was try and stay out of sight, if possible. Once we did that, we should-"

"Stay put. Agreed," Foster replied.

Sylvie sighed and said, "No. They told us to make contact with-"

The door suddenly swung open, and before either of them could scream in terror, Sylvie saw the most welcome sight of Detective Hailey Upton in full tactical gear outside. She raised a finger to her lips before waving them forward. Hailey moved closer until she was only inches away from their faces and said, "Stay behind me. And stay quiet. Ruz, take the rear."

"Copy," Adam Ruzek said, moving behind Sylvie and Foster. The two members of Intelligence moved seamlessly through the hallways, not saying a word yet knowing exactly where the two medics were in the middle. Sylvie had no idea where they were being taken, but she hoped that it was far from wherever the gunmen were.

Finally, they seemed to approach a door labeled, _Records Room._ Hailey opened the door quickly and yanked Sylvie and Foster inside before she and Ruzek went inside.

"What are you guys doing here?" Foster asked. "Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but...how did you get in here?"

"We were already here. Ruzek managed to grab me before it all went down. We stumbled on you by accident."

"And you brought us here?"

Hailey rolled her eyes. "We were on our way here when we heard you guys talking. We double-backed to see who it was since we figured that it would be a civilian, and not a gunman, because why would they hide in a closet? Speaking of our plan, while you are here, help us find the blueprints of the building."

Sensing that the blueprints were pivotal to some plan that the two cops had concocted, Sylvie asked, "Is anyone else here with you?"

"Nope. It's just me and Upton," Adam gave them a grin. "We're the lucky ones."

His grin disappeared as Hailey rapped him on the ear with her knuckles as she passed by him to look in another section of the room. "You cheeky bastard," she muttered.

Adam waved her off and replied, "You love it."

Sylvie looked between the two cops with some confusion. She knew that the two had briefly dated some time ago, but she had no idea when it ended. Actually, for a while, it seemed like they were _still_ dating. Sylvie was by no means an expert on what to do with your ex; she had heard before that it was possible to still be friends afterwards, but she had never seen it for herself until now. Adam and Hailey were clearly comfortable around each other. There seemed to be no lingering hard feelings or awkwardness between them regarding the break-up, which was rare to see.

"Yo, Ruz. I think I found them," Hailey said, bringing a bunch of rolled up papers over to them. She cleared an area on the floor and spread out the papers. The blonde detective examined the papers with her flashlight between her teeth, clearly understanding whatever was on the paper.

"Is that it? Or were you lying about your college roommate?"

"You went to college?" Sylvie asked at the same time that Foster said, "I bet there's an interesting story there."

"Graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Criminal Justice. And that is _all_ that I'm willing to share," Hailey said, looking both paramedics in the eye.

"You told me," Adam pointed out.

"I needed you to trust that I know what the fuck I'm doing, asshole," Hailey said, the insult sounding less cold than it probably was supposed to.

"Alright. _Do_ you know what you're doing?"

"Yes. I think. But on the bright side, if we get killed then you were right, Adam."

"That's a comforting thought," Adam muttered.

They were able to make it back to the floor where they left the camera. Adam raided a maintenance closet to find a drill and then returned to the room where Hailey and the other girls were waiting. As it turns out, having Foster around was a good thing. She had some experience with the equipment from her time in med school and was a big help in operating the equipment.

As they set up the equipment, Hailey and Adam focused on opening up a hole in the floor. They removed the tile using a knife and started opening up the floor to access the ventilation system. Then, they took a screwdriver and removed the screws of the panel underneath the tile, Their plan was to have Hailey slip inside-since she was the smallest one-drill a hole, and maneuver the camera around to give Ruzek a complete view of the room, hopefully revealing just how many gunmen they were dealing with. They would not have audio, but to see the gunmen would make all the difference.

Hailey managed to squeeze inside the hole that they opened up, taking great care to land as softly as she possibly could. Once she landed on her feet, she grabbed the drill from Adam and got to work. She could only hope that it was loud enough on the floor below to mask the sound of the drill carving a neat hole in the metal. Once there was a hole big enough to fit the camera inside, Hailey handed the drill back to Adam and accepted the camera from Brett. Adjusting the bite light clutched between her teeth, she began the slow process of fitting the camera inside the hole.

"That's good," Brett whispered loud enough for Hailey to hear. She stopped moving the camera through the hole and instead let it sit for a bit to let Adam get a look of the room. Foster was with him, recording the video on the screen on her cell phone to go over everything in more detail later. Right now, they were just concerned with getting in and out without getting caught.

She slowly rotated the camera around in a circle, making sure to get eyes on every angle of the cafeteria. Knowing the status of the hostages would play a big factor in determining how fast they moved.

"Alright, Hailey. We got enough," Brett said.

Hailey immediately withdrew the camera, still taking care to remove it as quietly as possible. She handed it up to her partner and then pulled herself up. It was time for them to see what they were dealing with.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we see Chicago Fire introduced in this chapter. While their role is relatively minor in this chapter, they will play a larger role as the story goes on, so you can expect to see a lot more of them. There is also an action scene in this chapter. This is the first time that I've written an action scene, but I tried to make it as realistic as possible, especially with the storyline that I have planned. Thank for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Stella did not bother knocking on the door of her boyfriend's office before she let herself in; they were far beyond that point in their relationship. "Hey, babe," he said as she took a seat on his bed.

"Hey. You might want to have a chat with Casey."

"About?" Kelly asked.

"He won't admit anything to me, but I can tell that he is upset about something." Perks of living with the Truck captain full time was that Stella was more aware of what was going on with Casey than anyone else besides Kelly.

After his apartment was torched, Casey started living with Kelly. Stella moved in a few months later. It had been a big adjustment for all of them. Kelly and Stella had to adjust to living together and they also had to adjust to living with, not only their friend, but a guy that was Stella's direct superior and a higher-ranking officer than Kelly. They all had to learn how to set aside any arguments they had at work so they could live together peacefully. Casey would never admit it to anyone, but Stella was good friend, and usually, one of the first people to know when something was bothering him. So, when she told her boyfriend to talk to Casey, Kelly knew that she wasn't messing around.

"Okay. I'll make sure to talk with him when I get the chance."

Stella sighed and walked over to close the door so their conversation could be more private. "I would find the time quickly. I think it has something to do with Brett."

"You mean about the kiss?"

"Hold up...they kissed?" Stella asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kelly held up his hands in defense. "He just told me the other day. But I know that things did not end well between them. Gabby may have been brought up."

"Shit. What happened?"

"Brett needed to know that Casey wasn't going to go back to Gabby if she ever came back again. If I had to guess...she was probably making sure that what was between them was worth fighting for; that he wasn't going to drop her once Gabby returned. Casey was unable to answer her." Stella resisted groaning. Only she and Kelly were aware of the absolute chaos that occurred when Gabby last returned to Chicago.

She asked him to go with her to Puerto Rico again, and when he said no, she got angry. Casey left her, got drunk, and moped around the apartment until they were back on shift. Casey never went into detail about their argument, but it was clear that neither party left each other on good terms. It took several conversations between the three of them for the captain to realize that he and Gabby were better off going their separate ways. Of course, they kept that part secret from everyone else. Casey could never be seen by anyone at the firehouse to be on anything except the top of his game. It was why Stella and Kelly usually handled talking to him.

She could understand where Brett was coming from. Gabby had been her best friend and she was reluctant to drive a wedge between that friendship. Not only that, but Casey had already gotten "back together" with his ex-wife once before, though she had no idea how badly it turned out to be.

"He probably froze."

"Probably," Kelly agreed.

"If that's the case, Kelly, then you need to talk to him. Work some damage control. I can see what I can do on my end."

Stella froze as she felt a gentle hand on her arm. "Stel, please don't try to play matchmaker."

"This has nothing to do with that. They are friends, first and foremost. And we've both seen how helpful that friendship has been to both parties involved. Even if they ever get together, I'd at least like them to remain friends."

"Alright, fine. I'll talk to him."

"Good. And remember, as long as nothing comes up on their end, we're meeting up with Jay and Hailey for dinner."

Kelly sighed, clearly giving in to his stubborn girlfriend. If she was unable to get Matt and Brett together, then she was going to try like hell to get Jay and Hailey from Intelligence together (apparently she was currently participating in a wager with the people at Med and Intelligence on when they would get together, and Stella was determined to win). Once such method Stella was using was to invite the partners out on "double dates".

"I will text Jay to confirm our reservation."

"You're the best. Love you!"

Kelly looked down at his phone with a wide grin on his face. He found himself happy and content with his life and relationship at the moment, which was something that Kelly never could have imagined a few years ago. He hoped that his brother could one day feel the same way.

Glancing over at the adjoining office, Kelly noticed Casey inside, probably bent over a stack of paperwork. He grabbed two cigars from his desk and headed for his brother's office to see if he wanted to blow out some steam. Like Stella did for him earlier, Kelly did not bother knocking on the door. Over a year of living together had wiped out most of the barriers between them.

"Want to take a break?" He asked, holding up the two cigars.

"You have perfect timing," Casey replied. He pushed his seat back and stood up, grabbing a cigar on the way out.

It only took a few minutes for them to set up their customary lawn chairs in front of Engine 51. Neither man spoke for the first few minutes as was custom with this tradition. They needed a few minutes to relax before either could feel up to sharing. Normally, both of them would share something, but for the first time, Kelly had nothing to share wit his brother. His life was great at the moment.

He had an awesome girlfriend and brother-who were both experienced at keeping him in line; his sister, Katie, had opened her own restaurant in New York, which was very successful; and there was nothing on the job that was bothering him today. But Kelly knew that Casey needed this, which was why he offered in the first place.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Kelly."

"Your moping says otherwise. Stella even mentioned something about it to me."

Casey sighed and nodded his head. Now, he understood why Kelly asked him to go outside and talk. As much as Casey would deny it, living with Kelly and Stella had changed his relationship with both. Kelly was and would always be his brother, but there was a new understanding between them. Living together allowed Kelly to be there for Casey, to be the first one to notice when something was going on with him. Stella seemed to have picked up on those abilities as well because Casey knew there were a few times that she roped in Kelly to talk to him before someone else noticed him off his game. He would deny it out loud, but Stella Kidd was like his sister and the only one that he would trust to run Truck if he was absent, now that Hermann had been promoted.

"She noticed my interaction with Brett this morning on a call. I knew she was going to say something, so I went straight to my office when we got back," Casey replied.

"You never told Brett about what happened between you and Gabby, did you?"

"I froze up, Kel. It was kind of hard to explain that she wanted me to go to Puerto Rico with her because she was pregnant and wanted someone to support her. It was also hard to explain that I wasn't the father."

"Fuck! You've got to be kidding me," Kelly exclaimed, instantly feeling more anger and resentment rise towards the woman that he had once considered to be his little sister, the woman he thought was his brother's soulmate.

"Nope. That's what we were arguing about."

"Well, shit, Case. You should have said something."

"What is there to say? Gabby and I are over. We've been over for a long time and nothing is going to change that."

Kelly wanted to slap his brother upside the head for being so stubborn and thickheaded (even though Stella often claimed that he was the exact same way). "Then tell Brett that! If its ever going to work out between you two, then you should tell her the truth, _including_ the argument you had with Gabby."

"Where is she anyway? Is Ambo still out on a call?" Casey asked, looking around.

Casey was right. Ambulance 61 was not on the apparatus floor. And come to think of it, Kelly had not seen them or heard them return in several hours. It wasn't too uncommon for Ambo to leave the firehouse and then not return for several hours. They had a lot more calls to answer than Truck, Engine, or Squad, and there were some days that were far busier than others.

"Maybe its just one of those days."

"I guess so."

The two firefighters settled back into their seats when they noticed a dark grey truck pull up in front of the firehouse. A few seconds later, Jay Halstead got out of the truck, looking extremely worried about something. Kelly knew that Jay Halstead was pretty stone-faced when he wanted to be, so for him to be showing such concern without caring that others could see it, meant that there was something seriously wrong. And because he was at the firehouse-a place he only showed up at when something happened that required 51's attention-Kelly had a feeling it had something to do with their missing paramedics.

* * *

Jay was the one chosen to share the news about 51's missing paramedics.

Normally, Voight would have gone with him, but he had been stuck in meeting after meeting, trying to convince the Superintendent, the mayor, the governor, and maybe even a senator that moving too quickly to take back Chicago Med was a bad idea. He was trying to get them to trust his officers inside-Hailey and Adam-, but no one knew them like Intelligence did. They did not like how little the two were communicating with the outside. For all they knew, they could have already been killed. Intelligence thought differently. They did not see the silence as a bad thing (though they were worried for their friends, their family); they knew that it meant Hailey and Adam were still hard at work.

He had also needed a break from staring at the building's blueprints. Hailey and Adam had obviously needed to take several detours to carry out their plan, which apparently included getting footage of the gunmen from a floor above (how they accomplished that Jay was more than a little curious about) and picking up Brett and Foster-who had been hiding in a closet. It gave Jay the exact break he had been looking for, even though he was loathe to leave his partner without his back-up.

As soon as he got out of the truck, Jay spotted two guys sitting in foldable lawn chairs, smoking cigars. Even from far away, he could tell that it was Casey and Severide; they were the only two known for consistently smoking cigars at the firehouse.

Both men stood up as he approached with matching looks of concern on their faces. Intelligence never stopped by the firehouse for a good reason.

"Hey, Jay. What's going on?" Kelly asked.

"I need to see Chief Boden right away...it's important," Jay replied, trying to look as unconcerned as possible. Honestly...he was probably failing miserably. Keeping Hailey safe was the only thing on his mind at the moment.

"Sure. I think he's in his office."

"Thanks guys."

The two officers led the detective to the Chief's office, getting some concerned and confused looks on the way. Everyone in the firehouse, even newcomers like Gallo, knew that Intelligence only ever rolled around when they needed 51's involvement in a current investigation-in other words, they never came over for a social call.

And that was why the three of them were waved right into the Chief's office without any hesitation. Jay did not bother with pleasantries; they would only take up more time, time that could be used to figure out what exactly was going his partner's head at the very moment. So, he told the firefighters everything.

He explained the basics of the ongoing hostage situation at Med and followed the explanation up with telling the three that Brett and Foster were on scene. Before they could freak out, however, he told them that they were safe, that Hailey and Adam were on the inside and stumbled across them while probably doing something stupid. They were then escorted by the officers to an office far from the danger and given the order to call Intelligence to update them on the situation. Once he was finished, Jay scanned the three men's faces for their reactions, resisting the urge to shift in his seat from nerves.

"I must say that this is a lot to take in," Boden said after a minute of silence. "But they are both safe."

"Spoke to them myself, Chief. They are holed up in Dr. Charles' office with orders not to open the door for anyone except Hailey and Adam," Jay replied, trying to put as much reassurance into his voice as possible.

"How close are you all to resolving this situation?" Casey asked from his position by the window.

"It's a...tenuous situation. There's a lot of variables in play at the moment, Chief, and there is still a lot that we _don't_ know about everything. Hailey and Adam are doing their best to give us intelligence from the inside, but its taking longer than we expected."

"But there is a plan to get them out?" Kelly interrupted.

"We'll get them out," Jay replied, standing up. "SWAT is coming up with a plan right now and every time Hailey and Ruzek call, they give SWAT more information to help."

"Call with updates," Boden ordered.

"You got it, Chief."

* * *

Hailey and Adam left Brett and Foster in Dr. Charles' office with a fire extinguisher and orders to use it on anyone who came in the room besides the two cops. They needed to work quickly and things would work a lot faster if they did not need to worry about two civilians as well.

Now that they had a glimpse of the gunmen and a clock that was running against them, they decided to get a little more proactive in their investigation. They raided several offices and maintenance closets until they found water bottles, hand towels, and duct tape. They had both spent enough time on the job to know that plastic water bottles filled with a towel and attached to a muzzle with tape served as an improvised silencer. Despite the time constraint now on them, stealth was still the best way to go.

Then, they grabbed several bottles of chemicals and created a small explosive. When combined together, the two chemicals created a loud bang and a lot of smoke but no fire. It would cause minimal damage, but still create enough attention to draw the gunmen's attention. They were hoping that the leader would only send a few men to check out the sound and not an entire group. Neither Hailey nor Adam had the ammunition to do so.

"This is a really stupid idea," Hailey muttered.

"Tell me about it. When we get out of here, we are totally getting drunk," Adam replied.

"As long as we don't end up sharing a bed by the end of the night, I'm all for it."

Adam grinned and let out a laugh. "Oh my god, I love you."

Despite the situation, they both found themselves chuckling a little bit. Some aspects of their romantic relationship never really went away after they decided to break-up. Their relationship started out as just a bit of fun-a way to relieve themselves from the high stress of the job. While their relationship had evolved into something more than that (however briefly it lasted), they were never meant to be together. Adam and Hailey were never going to work out and that was something they both knew going in, at least subconsciously. Unlike most exes, Adam and Hailey knew this and accepted it for what it was. But their love for each other would never go away.

Their friendship went back to what it was before they started dating, though they were always toeing the line between friendship and something more. It was a hard line for many people to deal with, but it had become like second nature to them both. But it made navigating this hostage situation a little easier.

Of course, Hailey would have preferred to have her partner by her side. She knew that she was better with him there. And she supposed that if she couldn't have Jay by her side, then she was happy to have Adam there-someone else that Hailey trusted and felt safe with.

"If we get out of here, you're buying," Hailey replied.

"I'll take that deal," Adam replied, bumping his fist with hers.

They took their chemicals and took turns pouring them into a bucket in the hole that Hailey had crawled into earlier. Once Adam had emptied his bottle, they both ran and took up strategic positions that they had planned out ahead of time with their silenced pistols in hand. All communication between them ceased as their adrenaline started spiking in anticipation of the incoming fight.

Hailey shifted her stance a little and shifted her grip on her gun as she prepared herself. They had to wait for the smoke to clear before they were able to take the shot, which also put them at risk.

But _hey,_ no one had never accused them of being cowards.

In the complete silence of the hallway, they were easily able to pinpoint the sounds of footsteps on the stairs with the sounds of multiple voices. Hailey raised two fingers in Adam's direction and then quickly put up a third. Adam understood the signal. They had two, maybe even three, guys coming their way. While two would have been ideal, three was definitely pushing the limit a little bit. They heard the sound of the doorknob turning and prepared themselves for the fight ahead.

Hailey was the first to see a man appear through the doorway and waited for him to walk slightly past her before she ran forward and slammed him into the wall, knocking his automatic rifle out of his hands. Due to her small stature, Hailey was usually at a disadvantage when it came to fighting, so she had to fight a little differently than everyone else in the unit. Most of her opponents would be stronger than her; Jay taught her to stay light on her feet and move quickly to avoid getting hit by those hard punches, to get the drop on them and move fast enough to subdue them before they gained their bearings and fought back too hard. Of course, that usually only worked on petty criminals, not hardened professionals like this guy clearly was.

The wall slam clearly threw him off somewhat, but not enough. He retaliated by punching her in the face, which knocked Hailey back into the opposite wall. Adam would have gotten involved, but he was already knee-deep in a fight of his own. He pulled out a very sharp knife and stalked forward to Hailey.

Spitting out the blood that had pooled in her mouth, she waited for him to get close before she sidestepped the knife. She grabbed his wrist and brought her knee up, breaking his hand-exactly how Jay had showed her. He screamed in pain and Hailey used the opportunity to knock the knife out of his hand and drive it into his thigh. This guy did not give up easily though because he was still getting up. He slammed an elbow into the back of her knee, bringing her to the floor next to him.

He pulled the knife out of his thigh and drove it into her left side. Kevlar was great against bullets, but not that great against knives. "Fuck," Hailey yelled out.

The offender started to get up before Hailey heard a grunt and something that could only be blood splatter on her face. Looking up, she saw Adam at the other end of the hallway with his offender knocked out and unconscious.

"You good?"

"Thanks," Hailey said, avoiding the question. She pulled out the knife and leaned against the wall with a hand against her bleeding side.

Adam crouched at her side and examined the wound. "That does not look good."

"Look how big he is compared to me. Combined with the fact that he is definitely military, I didn't stand much of a chance," Hailey replied.

"Fair point. Well, the good news is that we are in a hospital. Should be able to patch you up. I can go get Brett and Foster."

"No. We need to keep an eye on him and I don't want him to know about them. You do it. Besides, going back and forth is just going to eat up time that we don't have. We need to get some answers."

"Hailey, are you sure?"

"I trust you, Adam."

He sighed and said, "It definitely won't be pretty, Hails. I only have basic first aid training and you need to be checked for internal bleeding." If Hailey's hunch was right and they were professionals, then the guy definitely knew what he was doing when he stabbed her. He wouldn't have stabbed anywhere if it couldn't do some serious damage.

"We live in Chicago. I'm not going to a beach anytime soon."

"Alright. I'll follow your lead, Hails. Can you walk on your own? I need to make sure that our friend over there stays put while we get you patched up."

"As long as you get your ugly mug out of my face, I should be fine."

Adam gave her a soft grin. "You're making fun of me. Now I know that you're going to be fine."

Once Hailey was up on her feet (albeit leaning against the wall), Adam turned back to their unconscious offender and sighed. If he wasn't somehow killed by these guys, then it was a guarantee that Jay was going to kill him. Well...at least he had something to look forward to.


	4. Chapter 4

Hank Voight waited a few seconds before he approached his unit, quietly observing each and every member. The current situation was extremely stressful and there was no way that they weren't feeling the heat, especially with two of their own and people that they considered to be family on the inside.

Kevin was clearly worried about Adam and Hailey, but he was able to push those feelings aside so that he could focus on getting them and the hostages out. Hank was less concerned of Kevin than he was of Jay and Kim.

Despite his strict policy about relationships, Hank knew that things had changed. Intelligence was an elite unit, which therefore isolated them from other units and civilians. Members of Intelligence spent most of their time together, which meant that members-especially partners-naturally gravitated towards each other. He valued his officers and his detectives far too much to ever let them transfer units if they proved that they could work together without getting too close to crossing lines. Life was often too short for cops for Hank to object.

This situation was one where he was able to observe both Jay and Kim to see if they would be able to handle this. Hailey and Adam were a different story. He had a feeling that they were too preoccupied to think of their partners on the outside.

Kim seemed to be handling the situation as well as could be expected. She was tense, yes, but she seemed focused enough that Hank had no problem with her working the case. She and Adam had gone through rough situations like this in the past and came out on top. He was more concerned with Jay.

There were times when Jay was able to mask his emotions fairly well, but he was less able to when Hailey was involved (that Hank knew from experience). This time was no different. There was a tension looming inside him that was visible to anyone who looked at him for long enough. He refused to sit still and always had to be doing something. Jay had even left the scene and gone over to Firehouse 51 to alert them of the situation to avoid sitting around and doing nothing, despite the fact that it would take him away from Hailey. Hank watched him carefully for any sign that he needed to be pulled off the case. So far, he hadn't seen any, but that could change at any moment. The situation inside Med seemed to be quite fluid at the moment, so Hank made himself a silent promise to keep an eye on Jay.

"Alright...are there any updates?" Hank asked, approaching his unit.

"Been radio silence since Brett and Foster called us a half hour ago," Kevin replied.

"Where are we at figuring out what their plan is?"

It was clear that Adam and Hailey had developed their own plan that they were carrying out with efficiency, which they had yet to disclose to everyone else. Hank could understand their reasoning. They didn't want to share their plan over the phone in case someone was listening to them on another line. More importantly, however, he trusted Adam and Hailey to be able to carry out their plan and relay any new information to them if they could.

"Honestly, Sarge, its hard. The hospital is huge. They could be doing anything," Kim said.

Hank shook his head. "Listen, the four of us are the only ones here who know how Ruzek and Upton think; the only four people who have a _chance_ of connecting the dots. So, think. What would you do?"

"Well we know that they somehow got eyes on the offenders in the cafeteria. Based off that information, they're probably luring one of these guys to them to interrogate them, figure out _why_ they invaded Med," Jay said.

"So, sit tight and wait for them to contact us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super short chapter this week, I know. It will be longer next week. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.


	5. Chapter 5

"Wakey, wakey, sunshine," Adam said, throwing some water onto the face of the offender he had subdued. The man spluttered in response as he woke up and Adam took a step back towards Hailey, who had pulled up a chair a few feet away from the offender. Now that she was patched up, she was feeling a little better, but it was clear to Adam that she was nowhere near a hundred percent.

Patching Hailey up had been less about permanently closing the wound on her side and more about keeping as much blood in her as possible until they could get her _actual_ medical attention. Hailey refused to let him work alone, and after seeing these guys in action, he was silently grateful for her insistence. They ended up closing the wound with medical-grade staples. It was the quickest and best temporary solution for them at the current moment; Adam's sewing skills left a lot to be desired and stitches (even done well) ripped far too easily for what they were being called upon to do. Adam was oddly thankful that they were holed up in a hospital because it was rare to find a medical-grade stapler elsewhere.

Now that she was patched up, they had both turned their attention towards their captured offender. Adam had tied him in a chair and hoped that he would stay put until they were ready to talk to him. That time had now come.

"There we are," he said as the guy woke up. "Now, we have some questions for you. And considering what your friend did to my partner, I have a right to get some straight answers. Who are you?"

The man stared straight ahead and said nothing.

"Oh, we're going to play hardball, huh?"

"Let me lay something out for you to consider your options going forward: you took hostages inside a hospital," Hailey chimed in. "First of all, people might die because they don't have doctors or nurses looking after them-some of whom happen to be friends of ours. Second of all, its only us here. Cameras are down and there are no witnesses here to object. And when we get out of here, no one is going to raise an eyebrow if you're a little beat up."

Because of the cell jammers, Adam and Hailey could not contact the team to send them the video they captured or a picture of the offender. They could not run a name through the system or access criminal records. All of that required service, which they did not have at the moment. And with a little over an hour left before SWAT breached the building, they were also running out of time. There was always a reason when offenders took hostages at a specific area like a hospital, especially when they were as well organized as these guys were. They were after something very specific and the two officers were really starting to feel the heat.

"Exactly. I can tell them that the offender escaped his bonds and attacked my partner-who was already injured. I managed to subdue him using reasonable force. Considering the situation, no one will be able to argue with that. Right, Hailey?" Adam said, turning back to his partner.

Despite the pain she was in, she managed to give him a small smirk as she said, "They may even give you an award for it."

"It doesn't matter what you do. I'll never talk."

"We'll see about that."

"Look, the only way that you are getting out of here with a _chance_ of freedom again is if you cooperate. You were part of a group that took a hospital-a _hospital_ -hostage. The states' attorney is not going to be very forgiving with you if you don't talk to us. You don't strike me as the kind of guy who willingly participates in this kind of shit, so take a good long look at where you are. You have two choices...and only one of them is going to get you outta here as a free man."

* * *

Jay _hated_ being forced to sit around and do nothing. He was a soldier-a man of action.

It had now been over an hour since they had last heard from Adam and Hailey, making each and every officer on scene antsy and nervous with every passing minute. At this point, it was common knowledge among the first responders that two officers were inside the hospital and working to find a solution to this crisis.

SWAT had orders to stand down for now, leading to an impasse. They had yet to establish communication between the police and the hostage takers, which was normally a sign for SWAT to breach, but with so much unknown, they were hesitant. So far, they only had _one_ confirmed location of hostages though they knew that there had to be a lot more, based simply on the size of the staff and all the visitors, and patients (the ones who were able to be taken hostage at least). While they waited, Intelligence had started composing a list of every staff member on duty that day to get at least an approximate of the hostages.

Which caused Jay's already sky-high blood pressure to skyrocket even more.

Jay had been so busy working a case the past few days that he had no idea when his brother was working this week. He stepped off to the side and pulled out his cell phone, desperate to make sure that Will was not inside. It was bad enough that Hailey was inside; Jay wasn't sure if he could handle Will being inside, too.

 _"You've reached the line of Dr. Will Halstead. Please leave a_ -"Jay hung up the phone before the message could finish, cursing under his breath.

If there was one thing that the Halstead brothers had in common besides stubbornness, it was that they both answered their phones. There were minor exceptions, of course. Neither answered their phone while they were at work, but they usually answered it when they were off the clock. Will hadn't answered, which Jay knew in his gut to be a sign that his brother was a hostage inside Chicago Med. He would have called with Brett and Foster to let him know he was okay if Adam and Hailey found him. Hailey would have made sure of it. Not just because Will was his brother but because Hailey and Will were best friends.

Literally. He had no idea how it happened. One day they barely knew each other. The next day, they were best friends. Before leaving for an undercover assignment, Vanessa had once told Jay that they acted like brother and sister-in-laws (cementing the idea that Jay and Hailey were the unit's "old married couple"). Will was the only person who used Hailey's first and middle name on a daily basis, Hailey always made sure he had something decent to eat at work, they texted constantly, and they both enjoyed teasing Jay relentlessly, along with a hundred other little gestures that seemed to appear overnight.

"Halstead. You good?" Voight asked as he walked over to check on his detective.

"Will's inside, too, Sarge."

"What?"

"I forgot that Will was working today. He always picks up his phone when he's off the clock and he's not answering his phone. I think he's inside," Jay replied.

"He's not on the official schedule."

Jay scrolled through the group conversation that he, Hailey, and Will shared. It was random shit mostly, just memes that Will found on the internet and Hailey's sarcastic comments to each one. There was the occasional exchange about getting drinks together after work, but Jay remembered Will mentioning something about the flu going around the staff and the possibility of being called in on his day off. Hailey offered to cook dinner for him since Will often forgot to eat while he was on duty.

"Will told Hailey and I a few days ago that the flu is going through the hospital staff right now. We were supposed to get drinks the other night but he had to cancel because there was a chance that he would be called in."

"Okay..." Voight said.

Jay heaved a shaky breath and bounced on the balls of his feet, trying to stay calm. He flinched as he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"Jay, they are going to be okay. Hailey won't let anything happen to him-you know that," his sergeant removed his hand slowly, telegraphing his movements for the former Ranger.

He had never been a touchy-feely sort of person. Jay had not been born that way and his time in Afghanistan made even more wary of touch. It was nothing personal; Jay just did not like when people touched him without permission. The only two people that could touch him without setting him on edge were his partner and his brother.

It was obvious with Hailey. She was not just his partner; she happened to be his best friend and so much more. Jay could tell her anything and everything-and no matter how good or bad it was-she would always have his back, no questions asked. Her presence was the calm that he had been searching for his entire life.

He and Will had not always gotten along. Their age difference and issues with their father caused a rift between them-a rift that only grew when their mom died and Jay had to take care of her alone. His issues after leaving the Army prevented them from really repairing things until Will returned to Chicago to work at Med. Living in the same city again helped them repair their broken relationship. Jay was proud to say that they were now closer than ever before. Jay knew that Hailey was partially to thank for that. While they had gotten closer, Hailey's ultimatum to go to therapy had really given Jay reason to forgive Will for past grievances, which helped them become the close brothers that they were today.

They were the two people that Jay trusted above all else in the world; the only two people who had a _chance_ of talking him out of the spiral he was hurtling towards. Voight could try all he wanted to try and calm Jay down. Hailey and Will always knew _exactly_ what words to say that would make him feel better-coming from anyone else it just sounded like platitudes.

Voight ran a hand down his face, suddenly looking exhausted. It was rare that Jay saw him look so _human_ and he instantly knew that this situation was weighing heavier on Voight than anyone else could see. He tried his very best to take care of the officers under his command-who had really become his family after losing both his kids in one way or another and his grandson. This was one situation where he could do practically _nothing_ to help his officers, something that had to be weighing heavily on him.

"Look, I can't guarantee what will happen in there," he said, switching tactics. "Things can get real bad, real quick. None of us can control what happens in there except for Upton and Ruzek. So, we gotta help them in anyway that we can. And right now, that means standing back and doing nothing. I _hate_ it, Jay. I really do. But we don't have any options right now. Do you trust your partner?"

"Absolutely," Jay replied without hesitation. Honestly, he was a little offended that Voight even had to ask. Trusting her was second nature at this point. It wasn't even something that Jay had to think about anymore; it was something that he just _did._

"Then, trust her to do what needs to be done."

"I want to be there with her."

"I know. And I'm sure that you'll get your chance. So wait for the right moment."

* * *

Adam and Hailey decided to run their interrogation as they would any other if they were back in the district. Well, she did anyway. They gave their offender time to stew over his choices and consider which one was the best for him. At least, that was the route they hoped he would take. Otherwise, Hailey had no idea what they would do. Adam, of course, had a few ideas.

"Who is going to complain if he comes out a little roughed up?" Adam whispered to Hailey in the corner of the room. "Cameras are down and no one is going to care if we rough him up a little."

"Absolutely not," she replied.

Adam huffed, clearly not getting why Hailey was so against "roughing up" their suspect a little. "Look at me, Adam. I'm thinking about the long game here. If we get out of this, I want to see these guys locked up for as long as we can possibly get them. I don't want the case being jeopardized on a technicality like use of excessive force while in police custody. Cameras or not, witnesses or not, he is in police custody and we have to treat him as such. This is one of those cases where Voight would tell us to do _everything_ by the damn book. We can't let anything jeopardize the case."

"I don't like it."

"Who does?! I want that guy to pay, but we also have to think about the hostages downstairs. They are going to want justice themselves. How many times have we seen former victims take justice into their own hands because their abuser, attacker, or whoever hurt them or their families was let off because of technicalities?"

"There is a chance that we won't make it out of here alive."

"But there is a good chance he will," Hailey said, jerking her head over to their offender who was cuffed to a chair in the other corner of the room. "If we're dead, and he says that we used excessive force, there is no one to say otherwise. We may have had to improvise a little earlier, but where we can, we are operating _by. The. Book._ "

He huffed in anger again. Hailey sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a migraine coming on. She didn't really care how Adam felt about her decision at the moment. And she also knew that there would be some who might criticize her decision to follow the book in such a situation, but this was one of those cases that could make or break a cop's career. Every eye in the city, state, hell possibly even the _nation,_ were on Chicago Med right now and Hailey wanted to keep all eyes on the offenders who carried out the attack-not the cops who (hopefully) foiled the attack.

Finally, their patience (well, _her_ patience since Adam had basically passed like a caged tiger the entire time-which might have actually contributed to the decision being made by their offender) seemed to pay off. The offender called them back over, telling him that he had reached a decision. "I'll tell you everything I know."

"Alright, let's start at the beginning. Who are you?" Hailey asked.

"Mike Carson."

"Okay, Mike. Who do you work for?"

"I don't work for these guys. They brought me in at the last minutes for my expertise. I only met them two weeks ago. I don't know any names of the other guys. The boss made us choose different names so that no one could rat the others out."

"So what do you know?" Adam asked. They were finally starting to get somewhere.

"Not much else. These guys didn't even tell me _why_ they are doing this."

Hailey stood up for the first time since their interrogation started and moved closer to Mike. "Then why did you agree to do it in the first place? Asking someone to take a hospital hostage is not something that you just get into no questions asked."

"Look, my mom is sick. My job gives us some health insurance but it is nowhere near enough to cover the medical bills I keep receiving. One day, two guys approached me and said that they would give me 100K if I helped them out with something. I agreed. By the time I realized what they were asking me to do, it was too late to back out!"

Hailey exchanged looks with Adam. Unfortunately, it was a story that they heard far too often as cops. Good people desperate for money resorting to drastic and illegal measures to get what they needed. Criminals were extremely good at finding vulnerable people and exploiting their weaknesses for their own nefarious benefits. Mike Carson was just another victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time and ending up way over his head as a result.

"What were these specialties that you mentioned earlier?"

"Somehow, these guys knew that I was former Army EOD. They wanted me to-"

"Build them a bomb," Hailey finished.

"Yeah. As soon as the hostages were rounded up, the boss had me wire the doors with explosives _and_ set up the big bomb right next to a critical support column. If that column is knocked down, then the entire hospital goes with it."

Adam rubbed a hand over his face, suddenly feeling the exhaustion that Hailey had been feeling when this whole mess began. He had no idea why someone would take a hospital hostage, but he never imagined that they would try to blow the place up. And with the strategic location of the bomb, the charge only had to be big enough to take out the support column. Gravity would take care of the rest. "Is it on a timer?"

"No. The boss has the trigger on him."

"Adam," Hailey turned to her partner, jerking her head to the far corner of the room. She moved rather quickly for someone who had been stabbed about a half hour ago. Once they were both in the corner, Hailey turned her back to Mike so that he could not read her lips if he possessed that ability.

"This got a lot more serious," Adam muttered.

Hailey pinched her nose between two fingers and breathed slowly through her mouth. "If he is telling the truth-and that is a _big_ if-then we need to tell SWAT that they can't breach. Even if they get past the explosives on the doors, then their leader is going to pull that trigger and bring this place down on all of us. And if that happens, it won't only be us that die here. Everyone outside the building will die."

"We still don't know _why_ they are doing this though."

"And how are we going to figure that out, _Adam_? Round up another bad guy? Hope we don't die in the process? Hope that the leader doesn't catch onto a plan and decide to set off the bomb?" This was definitely not something that they could ignore, yet it wasn't a situation that they could run into headfirst anymore. Hailey knew that Adam was impulsive and prone to overlooking obvious consequences if it meant protecting people that he cared about, which meant that (as usual) it was up to her to remain level-headed.

"No, but I'm saying that we need to take things one step at a time," he replied, trying to stay calm. This new revelation had greatly increased the weight on both their shoulders. Because now, they didn't have to just worry about getting hostages out. They also had to find and dismantle a bomb-if Mike Carson was telling the truth.

"Hey, Adam?"

"Yeah"

"I might have figured out part of their plan if he's telling the truth. We need to call Voight. Now."

* * *

The phone ringing in the Intelligence area seemed to cause a sigh of relief throughout the entire scene. Intelligence relaxed and Jay even noticed a few patrol officers relax as he practically launched himself forward to answer the phone.

"Hailey?"

 _"You can't send SWAT in,_ " she replied.

"That's not my call, Upton. The mayor and governor want this over with."

_"Look, we managed to subdue one of the offenders and interrogate him. He claimed that they planted bombs on the main doorways. If you move inside now, you are going to set them off and the boss is going to level this place. There's a bomb right next to one of the building's main support columns. Knock that column down and the entire building goes down with it."_

"Did you say bombs?" Voight asked, leaning over the table to make sure that he heard her right.

_"Sure did. Hailey and I are working on finding that support column, but we could use your help confirming whether or not this guys is legit."_

_"You should find deposits of $5K in Mike Carson's bank account-that's the guy we subdued. He claims that the leaders of the group paid him in installments-should total $100K. And check to see if he is really former Army EOD,"_ Hailey cut in.

Voight looked at each and every member of his team around the table, sending them a silent message to get back to work. "Copy that. Anything else?"

_"These guys are monitoring police channels, which means that they know that the majority of the Chicago Police Department is right outside those double doors. The bomb could just be a worst-case scenario in case SWAT breaches. But the guy we captured told us that these guys are well-organized. Every eye in Chicago is pointed right at Med. They won't be looking anywhere else. This whole thing could just be a trick to divert our attention away from their real target."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know that this story has primarily focused on Chicago PD, which makes sense, and I keep promised that you will see more of Med and have yet to actually deliver. Fire and Med are going to start coming in more as we reach the climax of the story. You can expect to see character appearances from both Fire and Med in the next chapter. And this time I really mean it.

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone wondering, there is a specific reason why I decided to have Adam and Hailey paired together in the hospital. For one, both Kim and Jay will have to wrestle with their feelings for Adam and Hailey, respectively, and how the two of them are working together again in a deadly scenario (which has been known to inspire the admittance of feelings under the influence of adrenaline and the possibility of death). The other reason is that this story is primarily going to feature friendships, not romance.


End file.
